This book offers a practical approach to conducting practice research in the field of human services. This evolving form of applied research seeks to understand practice in the context of the relationships between service providers and service users, between service providers and their managers, between agency-based service providers and community advocacy and support groups, and between agency managers and policy makers. Practice research represents a form of evidence-informed practice that involves a wide array of research designs and methods, in contrast to the narrower emphasis on experimental designs that characterizes evidence-based practice. The emerging principles and practices associated with practice research highlight: 1) including multiple, diverse stakeholders, 2) maximizing and negotiating participation, 3) promoting practitioner engagement in all phases of the research process, and 4) developing new identities for participants as research-minded practitioners and practice-minded researchers. The book is designed for researchers, practitioners, service users and students, and focuses on concrete experiences that illustrate the processes and activities involved in a specific, locally negotiated model of practice research. The book describes multiple practice research studies across an array of fields of practice in the human services, focusing on the research questions, designs, roles and relationships that have been developed in the context of a university-agency practice research partnership. These descriptions and stories are used to construct a comprehensive, detailed picture of the research process. Based upon these descriptions, the book synthesizes a set of broader principles and guidelines for practice researchers.

This is a value pack comprising Chenoweth's The Road to Social Work and Human Service Practice, 5e print book + Search Me! Social Work, 2-term Instant Access. The Road to Social Work and Human Service Practice provides a comprehensive introduction to all aspects of practice in the professions of social work and the human services. It lays out the journey and expertly signposts the key areas of knowledge, skills, values, ethics, practice contexts and contemporary debates. Client and practitioner perspectives offer reflections on real-life social work and human services interventions, while new case studies show how theory can be applied to practice. Fully updated and revised, this text is an invaluable tool for students as they start their careers in the social work and human services sector. Search Me! is an online research library customised to your subject, that puts the information you need right at your fingertips. Content is updated daily from hundreds of scholarly and popular journals, eBooks and newspapers. Plus, 24-hour access means you won't be limited by library opening times!

Research Design for Social Work and the Human Services integrates a range of research techniques into a single epistemological framework and presents a balanced approach to the teaching of research methods in the "helping professions." Jeane W. Anastas begins with a discussion of the different philosophical perspectives within which social research occurs and continues with problem formulation, research design, and methodological issues influencing data collection, analysis, and dissemination. She presents both fixed (quantitative) and flexible (qualitative) methods of research, granting legitimacy, value, utility, and relevance to both styles of inquiry. Utilizing complete case studies to illustrate different methodological approaches, Research Design for Social Work and the Human Services integrates material on women and people of color, and draws attention to the ways racism, heterosexism, sexism, and classism affect the conceptualization and conduct of research. Anastas not only exposes these biases but actively addresses the experiences, needs, and concerns of clients of both genders and different races, ethnicities, sexual orientations, cultures, and classes.

This book provides panoramic overviews of critical human service organizational and management practice challenges, as well as new and needed research frontiers. The Future of Human Service Organizational & Management Research: Navigating Complex Frontiers invites researchers, educators, and practitioners to explore: the intersection of the complex environment of public and private human service organizations; and the rise and uncertain effects of new developments in social work, public policy and public management, and other helping professions. The contributors identify how future generations of macro practitioners and scholar-researchers can: Improve service delivery and program effectiveness; Implement evidence-based practices and evidence-informed practices; Promote leadership and social innovation; Build linkages across micro, meso, and macro levels of practice; Train organizational leaders and educate practitioners; and Advocate for more socially just visions of social welfare and society. This edited collection argues that human service organizational and management practice and research are needed to support new discoveries in social welfare, social work, and related professions. This book was originally published as a special issue of the journal, Human Service Organizations: Management, Leadership & Governance.

Practitioners in the helping professions today operate in challenging settings where budgets have been cut dramatically, and progression and success are too often defined primarily by key performance indicators and strategic outcomes. Tensions arise when such pressures conflict with helping professionals' core responsibilities to provide excellent care, advocate for patients or service users and to seek social justice. This book introduces a critical model for supervision which addresses not only the human relationships and interactions involved in work, but also the financial, political and managerial environment in which the work is carried out. It identifies how reflective practice alone is not enough to bring about transformational change, and outlines how practitioners can learn in and through supervision, drawing on ideas from critical pedagogy and organisational learning. Practice examples are included to demonstrate the use of this approach within contemporary human service environments. Providing a new approach for effective supervision, this book will be of interest to practitioners, managers, researchers, academics and students working across the human services, including health care, social services and criminal justice.

The Routledge Handbook of Social Work Practice Research is the first international handbook to focus on practice research for social work. Bringing together leading scholars in the field from Europe, the USA and the Asia Pacific region, it provides an up-to-the minute overview of the latest thinking in practice research whilst also providing practical advice on how to undertake practice research in the field. It is divided into five sections: State of the art Methodologies Pedagogies Applications Expanding the frontiers The range of topics discussed will enhance student development as well as increase the capacity of practitioners to conduct research; develop coordinating and leadership roles; and liaise with multiple stakeholders who will strengthen the context base for practice research. As such, this handbook will be essential reading for all social work students, practitioners and academics as well as those working in other health and social care settings.

This second edition of Innovation and Change in the Human Services considerably updates and expands the previous volume. An overview of the development of human services over the course of the twentieth century culminates in an evolutionary model which illustrates how human services generally progress from an initial “individual-problem” stage to one of considerable governmental involvement and media attention. Eight specific human services are discussed in detail: hospices for those with life-limiting illness; continuing care retirement communities; services for those with HIV/AIDS; domestic assault services; day care for children; services for the homeless; lifelong occupational counseling; and services for Alzheimer’s patients. A full chapter is devoted to some of the major events of the last decade of the twentieth century: the Clinton Health Care Plan; the Welfare Reforms of 1996; and the Oregon Death with Dignity Act. The chapter on human services education compares degree programs in human services and social work, and suggests a functional approach which would allow the human services worker to move easily from one setting to another, due to having mastered a common core curriculum with “universal” applicability. The last chapter deals with human services issues of considerable importance at the start of the twenty-first century, including: the corporatization of human services; the privatization of human services; Social Security reform; and healthcare reform. This material is expected to be of use not only to educators and students in the human services, but also to policy analysts and health services administrators/practitioners who face everyday the challenge of refining/adapting the programs they administer, study and support